


Jacket

by kuonji



Category: Free!
Genre: Episode Related, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 11:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuonji/pseuds/kuonji
Summary: He cleared his throat.  "This isn't a date," he said."No, it's not," she followed quickly.





	Jacket

Stunned at being so thoroughly soaked out of the blue, Gou pulled Sousuke's giant jacket around herself.

Aiichirou and Momotarou lay on the ground. She noticed that all three of them were holding water guns. She wondered, not for the first time, what crazy games the boys were getting up to now.

Sousuke grunted, still avoiding her eyes. "You can keep that until you dry off." And then he strode purposefully off into the crowd. Gou laughed silently to herself before turning to the two boys still curled up on the ground.

Kneeling beside them, she shook their shoulders. "Are you okay?"

Momotarou covered his eyes. "Gou-san! Thank you! I'm so lucky to be alive!"

"Um."

Aiichirou, meanwhile, had climbed to his feet. "Momo-kun, get up. Gou-san is covered up now." Blushing, he cut a quick glance at her. "I'm really, _really_ sorry about that. Please don't tell Rin-senpai."

Rolling her eyes, Gou assured him, "I won't." She could imagine what her brother would do to the poor boy who had soaked her, even though it'd clearly been an accident.

She zipped the jacket up over her blouse and hurried off. The muscles contest was about to start.

Later, in spite of the glorious deltoids and pectorals on the stage in front of her, she found that it was strangely difficult to concentrate. The scent on Sousuke's jacket was distracting.

***

Sousuke hadn't thought Rin would find out about his sister's small part in the water gun Survival Game. He wasn't particularly surprised, however, when Ai and Momo were both set to double suicide runs as punishment. Rin always had his ways.

Aside from smirking at his lowerclassmen's misfortune, he didn't think much more about it -- until later in their dorm room, ostensibly doing homework.

After the fifth time he just missed catching another of Rin's darting death glares at him, he returned the look, plus interest. "What?" he demanded.

Rin, his profile stiff, neither answered nor looked at him for several seconds. Finally, he turned in a decisive way and stared Sousuke down.

Sousuke, used to Rin's dramatic gestures, stared back, unimpressed. "What?" he said again.

"Are you going after Gou?"

That caught him by surprise. "Huh?"

"Are you trying to date her?"

An automatic denial somehow tripped on his tongue.

Rin narrowed his dark red eyes. Since childhood, his teeth had grown out to more resemble his dad's dangerous chompers. It made him look menacing -- though Sousuke could never quite see his sentimental friend that way.

"Hmm..." Sousuke looked up at the ceiling. "She is pretty cute." He cut a glance over, curious how Rin would react.

As expected, Rin gaped for a moment before his face screwed up in fury. "So _are_ you?"

"No. But it is my last summer as a high school student. Maybe I'll get with her for a while and have some fun."

"You--!"

"Kidding! Kidding!" Sousuke hastened to say, not wanting Rin to truly blow his top -- and feeling abruptly guilty for speaking of Gou that way.

Rin scowled. "You have a lousy sense of humor." He turned back to his homework and restacked his notebooks with undue force.

"Why would you care if I were, anyway?" Sousuke asked somewhat irritably. "Don't you trust me?"

Rin's mouth tightened. "Yeah. But she's my baby sister and you're my best friend. _If_ it happens, I'd like a little advance notice."

Sousuke meant to say, _"That's not going to be a problem."_ What he actually said was, "Sure."

***

"Haruka-senpai! Have you done any of your land exercises at all this week?" Gou waved the training menu at her upperclassman in familiar exasperation. "You're going to be a professional swimmer. You can't skip training like this."

Haruka pouted slightly but looked down at his feet, at least somewhat penitent. "Sorry."

Makoto came to his rescue with a soothing smile. "Ah, Gou-chan, it's the off-season anyway. It's okay to relax for a couple of weeks, isn't it?"

Sighing, Gou relented. She crossed her arms. "Fine. I bet your college manager won't be half as nice to you as I am, though."

"Thank you." From anyone else, it might have sounded mocking, but Makoto always managed to seem sincere.

Gou smiled in return. "I'll make a special exception this week, but _next_ week, we'll make up for your laziness!"

She enjoyed the look of alarm on Makoto and Haruka's faces.

Rei, doing stretches by the poolside, made a gurgling sound. "Gou-san! _I_ did not shirk my training. I don't see why we all should be punished! I find that most unfair."

Nagisa popped out of the water, his senses for trouble as keen as ever. "What? What?" He zeroed in on Gou. "Oh! Did you ask her?"

"Nagisa-kun! We were only talking about training regimens. Don't be rude."

"So you haven't asked her yet?"

Despite Makoto's shushing motions, Nagisa bounded over, leaving wet footprints behind. Rei, despite his admonishments, hovered attentively, holding a calf stretch for longer than necessary. Even Haruka straightened, as if waiting.

All that only made Gou more curious. "Ask me what?"

"Ah."

"Er."

"Ha!"

It was Haruka, finally, who said, flatly, "Are you and Yamazaki dating?"

"What? No! Of course not!"

Haruka gave her that impassive look that was akin to a shrug or possibly an eyeroll from anyone else. "Good. Yamazaki is kind of a jerk."

"He's not!" she defended him instantly. "He's just... overprotective and... taciturn and..." And kind of a jerk to people he didn't care about. "He means well!"

Haruka tilted his head slightly.

"Into the water, all of you!" she shouted, and, well-trained as she'd made them, the boys dispersed.

***

"Sou-chan! Sou-chan!"

The Iwatobi team's breaststroke swimmer scampered up to him in the locker room after their joint training session.

He raised his eyebrows at the slight blond in lieu of an answer.

"I saw the way you were looking at Gou-chan today."

He froze. "What are you talking about?"

"When you finally ask her out, we should celebrate. Oh, it's so romantic! An Iwatobi-Samezuka romance. It's like star-crossed lovers!"

"We're not star-crossed," Sousuke huffed. "It's not as if our schools are enemies."

"But we compete! You'll both be compromised."

"Rin is Gou's brother. She's already compromised. Anyway, I'm graduating. We're not competing anymore." Not to mention, he _couldn't_ compete anymore. Irritated, he stalked off toward the showers, but Nagisa just followed him.

"We're all pulling for you, Sou-chan. Don't give up! I even picked out a couples name for you two: SouGou! Isn't it cute?"

Sousuke wished the shower stall had a door so that he could slam it. He settled for pulling the curtain closed energetically.

***

Gou knew she wasn't a very feminine girl. She blamed her masculine-sounding name for that. The Warring States Period princess for whom she was named probably never had to think about baking a cake or buying chocolates.

She settled at last on making a super protein lunchbox, since that was something she knew she could make. Nagisa loved eating, and he loved her cooking. So it couldn't be that bad.

She brought the lunchbox and Sousuke's laundered jacket to the Samezuka Academy. After signing in, she made her way up to her brother's room. She'd only been here once before, since outsiders were only allowed into the dormitories during certain hours.

It was Rin who opened the door.

"Big Brother!"

They stared at each other.

"Gou." Rin looked down at the lunchbox. "Is this for Sousuke?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"He's out. Won't be back until tonight."

"Oh."

"I'll take it."

"Okay." She handed the jacket and the lunchbox over.

"Gou."

"Hm?"

"Sousuke's cool."

"Huh?"

"See you over the weekend."

"Ah, wait--"

He closed the door on her. Gou wasn't sure if she'd imagined the blush on her tough big brother's cheeks.

***

It was as if time had elongated itself. Or as if he were a malfunctioning robot.

Sousuke stared at his phone for an eternity before finally opening the email function. He froze up again before typing a simple message. And again before he sent it.

Then he sat like a stone, eroding into sand and watching dinosaurs evolve into birds while he waited for a reply.

When his phone pinged, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was stupid, anyway. He was just sending a courteous message to his best friend's little sister for a healthy (if oddly flavored) homemade lunch. It wasn't as if there was anything more going on than that.

***

{ _A movie sounds fine, but you don't need to treat me. That was just thanks for the jacket._ }

Gou frowned at her phone, wondering if she'd sounded too dismissive.

{ _You can buy popcorn._ } she typed. She thought about it. Changed it to { _You can buy popcorn if you'd like._ } Then changed it again to { _You can buy popcorn if that's okay._ } before hitting send.

The reply came immediately. { _Sure._ }

A giant grin absolutely did not spread across her face as they figured out the time and place to meet.

She kept hearing good things about "A Rat's Life". She would have gone to watch it anyway, she assured herself.

***

They met outside the theater, Sousuke having set out an hour early to ensure that he would make it in time even if he got lost on the way (which he did, but only a little, and no one other than himself, his phone's GPS, and that lady with the dachshund had to know). After greeting each other, they each bought their own tickets, as agreed upon.

Sousuke bought them popcorn while Gou found their seats. The whole time standing in line, he wondered nervously if he might go into the theater and find that Gou had left.

She hadn't, of course. She waved to him from the left side of the eighth row, her yellow sun dress bright, especially against her red hair, a shade darker than her brother's.

He sat and handed the popcorn over. They munched quietly, waiting for the movie to start.

He cleared his throat. "This isn't a date," he said.

"No, it's not," she followed quickly.

Sousuke sat back and watched the blank screen. Gou sat motionless as well. The usual murmuring and chatters from the other audience members hummed around them. He sat taller and glared around, searching for spies. He noticed Gou glancing around as well.

Finally, he looked over at her and she met his eyes at the same time. He leaned over, and when she didn't back off, he kissed her lightly on the cheek.

He sat back and stared straight ahead.

After a while, he noticed some movement beside him. Gou reached out her hand and hovered it over his on the armrest. When he didn't draw back, she placed it on top of his. He turned his palm over so they were holding hands.

"Now it's a date," she declared.

"Yeah," he agreed.

The lights dimmed and the previews started.

  
END.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this story, you might try these:  
> [Inevitable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14408391) (Free!), by kuonji  
> [Potential](https://archiveofourown.org/works/372480) (Stargate SG-1), by kuonji  
> [Name](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8941267) (Free!), by Cookiechansenpai  
> [I know places](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7664065/chapters/17451919) (Free!), by ptolemy, Sierra


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